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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415464">With Hope in Her Hands</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackhorseandthecherrytree/pseuds/blackhorseandthecherrytree'>blackhorseandthecherrytree</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, gleeful maligning of girl scout cookies, gleefully taking the mickey out of lex luthor behind his back, taylor swift gay jokes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:28:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,289</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415464</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackhorseandthecherrytree/pseuds/blackhorseandthecherrytree</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>DCeased Hope at World's End canon. The world is ending, but not for them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Stephanie Brown/Talia al Ghul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Disclaimer: please note that I do not own Batman, Stephanie Brown, or Talia al Ghul. This is, of course, a damn shame. </p><hr/><p>Stephanie Brown is an enigma.</p><p>Talia feels safe in saying this. A superhero in her own right, and she puts down her own cape to pick up Robin? A girl of her age should have more self-respect than to run around playing second fiddle to a twelve-year-old, even her Damian. So she watches her. She watches everyone; but she watches Steph closely.</p><p>(At Superman's Fortress of Solitude, she and Damian and Stephanie and Alfred all have adjoining rooms, so this is easier than one might normally imagine. Superman, Talia considers, is a surprisingly decent man.)</p><p>(Another thought, and she's not sure why she's surprised.)</p><p>Steph is...bright, is the best way to describe her. She guides Damian gently – she acts more like his handler than anything else. She's friends with a few people, but she seems to keep to herself. She puts on a show of general nonchalance – Talia caught the sound of sobs coming from her room, once, but when she left her eyes were red-rimmed and clear.</p><p>Perhaps that's why Talia is surprised when a knock sounds at her door and Stephanie is on the other side. She has brought an offering – deep, rich coffee and cookies.</p><p>“We should talk,” Stephanie says. The smile on her face looks pasted on, like – some American child's crayon project, or chalk on concrete. “I'm worried about Damian. And...you're his mom, so. I figured you probably would know better than anyone what's going on with him.”</p><p>Talia studies her – long enough to be uncomfortable, quick enough to evaluate. She makes her decision. “Come in,” she says.</p><p>The Fortress of Solitude is a remarkably convenient safehouse. She asks for all the equipment she needs – slow samovar, cups, plates, a table – and it provides. She settles on the floor, as she would in her father's house. Stephanie follows her lead. If they only had cushions...but everything here is synthetic and hard.</p><p>(The cookies are Girl Scout monstrosities. Talia isn't sure what Steph had to trade in order to get them, but she knows they weren't cheap. Nostalgia is expensive, these days.)</p><p>(The smell of coffee bubbles through the small room. It is warm and rich and satisfying, almost all on its own.)</p><p>The quiet that begins these types of conversations is soothing. Talia remembers sitting with her father in the mornings, listening to the sound of the world before it wakes. Birdsong, wind, the green of the morning. The bubbling of coffee, to be served in small brass cups. The shape and sound of the world as important a part of the ritual as the materials it encompassed. She lets the silence fill her bones before she speaks.</p><p>“How long have you been a superhero, Stephanie?” Talia asks. In another life, it would've been easy to retrieve this sort of information. Here she has to work with scraps. Still, there is value in it.</p><p>“About two years. It feels longer,” Stephanie says, and quirks an eyebrow. “Is this where you ask me for my origin story?”</p><p>Amusing. “I'd assume it has something to do with the bounty your father laid on your head,” Talia responds. “A bad business, that. It's League policy not to get involved with family matters.” She watches the girl for her response.</p><p>Stephanie's face is blank. “Much appreciated.” The girl does not look at Talia. It is its own answer. “Found out my dad was a supervillain, and as it turns out I was a liability. It didn't take me long to decide to spoil his crimes – hence, the Spoiler.” She looks up and smirks at Talia. “Really, with those puns, the Robin gig was only a matter of time.”</p><p>“Indeed.” Talia allows herself to smile. “Grayson's abilities in that area were impressive, to say the least.” She can say something kind about her Beloved's adopted son, now that he is dead. They'd had no good words for each other while he was alive – however, she suspects that he won't be coming back from this death. Everything has been so...final.</p><p>(She will not forget her father's face enraged more than the Lazarus Pits ever left him, unthinking, unfeeling, a dead man yet walking. She will not forget stabbing him through the heart with his own blade. She will not forget Jason's voice telling her that Bruce had had to kill his own sons-</p><p>No, she will not forget. But now is not the time for such things.)</p><p>The coffee, finally, is ready. She pours it, cup to cup. There is sugar, and that is all.</p><p>“Black as hell and sweet as sin,” Stephanie murmurs. “Something my grandmother used to say.”</p><p>“....My father preferred it this way,” Talia settles, and tries a...yes, a Thin Mint. It's rather intriguingly awful. “I was lucky, I suppose. I was always raised to join the family business.” The American idiom comes easily to her lips, although the context does not.</p><p>“As was Damian,” Stephanie says, and Talia appreciates that the girl has not been so uncouth as to be immediately direct. “When was his first kill?”</p><p>Stephanie's eyes as she looks up at Talia are full and dark like the coffee she sips. Talia feels herself scrutinized thoroughly. It is not an accusation, like her Beloved or his sons would have made. It is – an acceptance. An inquiry.</p><p>Because this question was asked without pity or scorn, Talia answers honestly. “Eight,” she says. “It was self-defense. It was – he was honored.”</p><p>She cannot say she is comfortable with it. She cannot say that this is what she would have chosen for him. She herself was a teenager when she first killed, and cried for it, before picking herself back up and moving on. Damian was not allowed the luxury of tears. He was – he was not allowed that feminine weakness.</p><p>(Talia has looked at herself in the mirror of her mind and soul. Somehow, she cannot think of herself as weak.)</p><p>Stephanie lets out a long exhale. “That's...really young,” she says. “But I figure you know that. And I have – I have no place to judge. Maybe in another life, I would have, but in this one I had to kill my best friend and her brother. Being able to kill – it's a more useful skill than I imagined.”</p><p>While Talia is processing this, the girl gives her a wry half-smile that shows no joy, only pain. “It's the end of the world. If we don't compromise to survive, there'll be nothing left.”</p><p>All she can think is that her Beloved – her Bruce – would never have said anything like this. He wasn't capable of it. She'd thought in rare half-fleeting moments that he might, but ultimately she'd known. However much he came to her bed, he could never have accepted her in the daylight. He would never have understood.</p><p>(She would've had to sacrifice her entire life in order to be with him truly)</p><p>“So,” Talia asks carefully, “what exactly is your concern?” <em>If your concern is not that he has had to kill people</em>, she means. <em>If your concern is not that I will encourage him to do so again. If you, as his chosen handler, are not going to restrain him from killing when necessary?</em> She is not so much fool as to think that this compromise Stephanie has opened herself up to will involve the sort of killing the League of Assassins had taken for granted.</p><p>...Truly, in being Damian's handler, Stephanie has given Talia a gift. She can simply be his mother. She will not have to worry about the blood on his hands when he comes home at night. She has not and will not forget this.</p><p>Stephanie finishes her cookie as if the silence of the room, the Antarctic, the world, has sunk into her bones as well. “My concern,” she says, “is what do I do when he can't sleep at night? What do I do for the nightmares?” The girl swallows reflexively. There are dark circles under her eyes, a tenseness to her movements. “When do I know when it's become a problem?”</p><p>Talia looks at Stephanie and thinks – <em>this is not only for Damian. This is for you, too, the blood on your hands you cannot clean, the friends and family you have lost, that which cannot be recovered. For you, death has never been cheap.</em> And so – how does one accept the unacceptable?</p><p>(Thankfully, she's lived long enough to know a thing or two about that.)</p><p>“As one does anything difficult in life,” Talia says. This was a lesson she had learned from her father when she was very young. “With pain, and with patience. You must watch and listen. Any warning signs will become apparent to you, if you do not take them for granted.”</p><p>Stephanie closes her eyes. It's the first sign of anything like weakness that Talia has seen from her for this entire visitation. There have been rumors that Stephanie regularly trains until she vomits. She had not put any credence to them then, but she does now.</p><p>Talia makes a snap decision. “If you are struggling,” she says, “you may come to me.” She smiles as gently as she is capable of doing, which is not very – but still, she has received compliments on this smile. “Know that I value my time, and so this offer is not made lightly.”</p><p>Stephanie eyes tip – towards Talia's decolletage, which is intriguing – and back up to make eye contact. The relief in the girl's eyes, the sudden haggardness in her posture – it is all suddenly made evident, and she is surprised she did not see it so clearly before. When has this one taken time for herself? When has she let herself rest?</p><p>“Thank you,” Stephanie says, heartfelt. Talia inclines her head to accept it smoothly.</p><p>The conversation moves on to small talk – how irritating Lex Luthor is in person, what the next food supplies will have, the conveniences of the Fortress' gymnasium. Talia extends an invitation to spar, which Steph accepts gladly.<br/><br/>(Somehow in there, Stephanie became Steph. Talia is not sure she minds the change.)</p><p>And when Talia lets Steph leave, it is with a small sadness. The room is less bright for her passing. Talia holds the sadness to her, space for a candle flame that will come again. The world is ending – but not today, and not for them. There will be time.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steph is not sure when sparring with Talia became flirting with Talia. Well, scratch that – Steph has always felt kind of awkward around Talia, in an <em>oh shit she's hot</em> kind of way. Like -</p><p>Ok. So MILFs – she wishes they weren't her type, except they totally are. Selina! Selina had been eye-dropping. There were reasons she went back to the woman who kidnapped her for more training, okay, and some of them were because she wanted to keep being called kitten. It – look, it happens.</p><p>(In the safety of her interior monologue, Steph can feel safe to admit these things. She might've told Tim, except Tim time kind of always turned into makeout time and teasing time. It wasn't always mutual bisexual crush time! He did not know how deep this ran, and there were times when Steph wouldn't have given him the ammunition. Harper – Harper knew. But. They're dead now. So. Harper's taking that secret to the grave.)</p><p>...Wonderwoman. Wonderwoman is a perfectly acceptable crush. Look, a woman with hair that fabulous and those heels and that lasso – it's something she feels okay to admit out loud, like, of course you would have a crush on Wonderwoman. Having a crush on Wonderwoman is like breathing. You do it because it's obvious. Having a crush on Wonderwoman is the vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles of the lesbian world, ok, Steph could talk about her crush on Wonderwoman all day in the right crowd.</p><p>But. Uh. Talia. Talia is – Damian's mom! Which normally would put her in no-go territory. But also she's here, and she is – very specifically paying attention to Steph. And making double entendres that Steph does not always know how to deal with.</p><p>Like. With Tim! Steph had always been the cool one. That'd been a nice change of pace, actually, getting to rock someone's world. To be someone's world, sort of. To know that she was throwing him for a loop, being completely unexpected and wonderful and mindblowing, sometimes literally. And-</p><p>And. Talia just swept Steph off her feet to the ground in a gorgeous staff move, leaned down over her, and put a kiss on her forehead. And somehow Steph is supposed to just get up and continue with her day after all that instead of being a bisexual disaster. Like – ok, Talia, you win! You win at everything. You win, and I will repress this crush like Taylor Swift repressing her girls-oriented sexuality via seething jealousy at the world of girls who don't realize I exist.</p><p>Talia drops a waterbottle next to Steph and sits. “You did well,” she says. “Better than last time. We still need to finesse your footwork.”</p><p>Steph grimaces. Ok, this she can deal with. “I've been practicing. I'll practice harder.” She still has the rock-climbing wall to do today – she's gonna race herself to the top and down again, try to beat her time. Professional. She can keep this professional.</p><p>Talia bumps her shoulder companionably. “You should come see me when you're done,” she says. “I'm sure I'll be able to educate you.”</p><p>Her hand brushes over Steph's, lingering far too long to be platonic, and Steph – all the gods and goddesses out there, Steph turns her hand over and squeezes back. Talia's hand is callused – polished, like fine marble. The eye contact lasts for an eternity, and yet it's still not long enough.</p><p><em>I knew you were trouble when you walked in</em>, Steph thinks with a sort of a fascinated...a fascinated fascination. “I'd like that,” she manages. When in this post-apocalyptic hell had she become the speechless one?</p><p>(When a lady as classy and way-out-of-her-league as Talia al Ghul expressed her interest, that's when.)</p><p>Talia squeezes her hand back once, and then raises herself to her feet in one long, fluidly elegant motion. “I look forward to it,” she says before sashaying out of the gymnasium.</p><p>Steph takes a moment and pours the entire water bottle over her head.</p><p>After her workout she spends the day like that, in a fugue of romantic attraction and sexual apprehension between periods of intense focus and activity. They don't get to stop being heroes just because the world is ending; if anything, it becomes even more important to do what they can. There's a clandestine Justice League meeting, and then a larger group leadership meeting, and then maybe she and Damian can go on a mission if Wonderwoman will spare her invisible plane.</p><p>...Superman, believe it or not, invites both of them to Justice League meetings. Damian sits in Batman's chair. It has a little Bat insignia on it and everything. He was a bit short for it at first; Steph had discreetly brought him a book and a cushion during a break, and he'd taken them begrudgingly. But he had taken them. Steph counts that as a success.</p><p>There's no Robin symbol, or there wasn't at first, so Steph stands awkwardly behind Damian until Superman gives her Black Canary's old chair. Dinah had taken the chair of someone named Hal? A Green Lantern. And then she refused to talk about it. That – that was awkward.</p><p>(More or less awkward than an eleven-year-old taking on the mantle of Batman? That's for history to decide.)</p><p>The Justice League – what's left of it – their purpose is, well, made up of hope and desperation and all the skill they can bring. She feels outclassed here, but Damian needs her support – and as always, someone needs to think about the victims. She likes to think that's what she brings to the table, her unique skill: being an ordinary person who wasn't raised by assassins or a Greek myth or an actual extraterrestrial alien. She was raised by a nurse and a super villain; she grew up in Gotham City.</p><p>She's the person who can cut off Ollie in the middle of another speech about kids these days, and she's the person who suggested the worldwide radio signal. She's one of the people who can be there with a medical kit when heroes get in from a mission, and she's their best person on predicting survivor patterns. She can crack jokes about their situation that are actually funny, and she can help mediate beween Damian's temper and other heroes' condescension. She's got specialties – Stephcialties. She's made herself useful.</p><p>Damian never says thank you openly; but she finds new Batarangs and equipment in her quarters regularly. He never tries to dissuade her from going with him. One time she swears he risked his own life to save hers, and she couldn't figure out whether to cry or be angry at him. She settled on a hug, which he wriggled out of quickly, and then it was back to business. But it happened. No takebacks.</p><p>She and <strike>Robin</strike> Batman have helped gather and guard refugees from all over the world. She's walked on Themiscirya's blessed shores with a sense of awe and loss. Every moment she has on Earth could be her last, so she's determined to make the most of it. And so she knows what she needs to do. She owes it to herself to at least try. She's just...she's just a little bit chicken, and upset at herself about it.</p><p>Steph doesn't get to the rock wall until after a long day full of the Justice League meeting, the Solitude Town Hall meeting, and a short grocery run mission to Sweden. She's on her last legs of the day, but she's determined to do this – it's as close as she can get to parkour, these days. As close as she can get to playing tag on rooftops, racing with grapple guns, doing gymnastic stunts on a wire so high she'd need Tim or Harper or Cass to spot her in case she fell-</p><p>She still doesn't know what happened to Cass. Steph wants to believe her friend made it. She knows Cass would've been clever enough to figure it out; the question is whether or not she was lucky enough. Because that's all the difference, really – luck. Were you looking at a screen when it happened, or not? Were you able to get away from the chaos? But she hopes nonetheless. Hopes without reason, but with purpose.</p><p>She has to keep going. It's all she can do.</p><p>When Steph gets to the rock wall, <strike>Wonderwoman</strike> Diana's there. Which is cool. Super cool. You know. Just – just casually sharing a rockwall with Diana of Themiscirya, like they're people who work together and hang out on occasion. Which they are now. That's Steph's life now. She's heard Diana call Lex Luthor “a stuckup little bitch”, and there are no takebacks from that. She can never be the person she was before, and Steph is weirdly okay with this.</p><p>“Hi Diana,” she calls out before chalking her hands up. She's stretched. She's ready. She can do this.</p><p>“Stephanie!” Diana exclaims, while hanging from a rock handhold with one hand, because she can do that sort of thing. She does a pullup. Steph is ninety percent certain she does it to show off. “It's good to see you!” Her smile is dazzling, especially for someone from an island that may or may not have dentists.</p><p>Steph plasters a grin on her face. “Good to be seen!” she calls back, and figures what the hell. She can show off too. She eyes the space, backs up a little, and runs into a handspring that lets her build the momentum to jump and grab two handholds roughly ten feet off the ground. Score.</p><p>Diana whistles. Steph is panting. All her training has paid in, because she actually pulled it off and holy shit her heart is beating so hard, how. She climbs the rest of the way up where Diana is waiting – there's a small alcove there, where you can sit and take a break and dangle your feet from the side.</p><p>Diana – Wonderwoman – shoulderchecks her casually, in a plain t-shirt and exercise shorts. “You did a good job today, with Constantine and Damian,” she says, and – and doesn't that make Steph's heart fill with rainbows. It'd been one hell of a pissing match. “It's a shame we never met before all this. I could've connected you with Themiscirya. My teachers would adore you.”<br/>
<br/>
Steph gulps – feels almost faint. “Real shame, that,” she says, trying to pull off nonchalant when she is talking to one of her childhood heroes. She should teach classes on how to mask anxiety at this point. “We should make it happen on New Earth, or wherever it is we're heading.”<br/>
<br/>
She wonders, briefly, if Diana's Greek gods will be there on whatever planet they end up settling. If it will matter that the stars are different, the people changed – or if they'll need new gods in this new planet. She figures it's indelicate to ask.</p><p>“Yes,” Diana says abruptly, and Steph is jerked from her reverie to see <strike>Diana</strike> Wonderwoman, polished and decisive. She smiles at Steph. “Race you to the bottom?”<br/>
<br/>
“You're on,” Steph says, and starts, because she knows she'll need every advantage. Diana still beats her even when Steph jumps from the twelve-foot mark, ducking and rolling to keep from breaking anything important. She lies on the ground, laughing, and after a moment Diana joins her.</p><p>She looks up at the ceiling, only recess lighting and opaque crystal looking back. She feels breathless – weightless. The world is screwed but she could do anything, absolutely anything, and she gets to be here. She chooses to be here.</p><p>“Diana,” she asks without thinking too hard about it, “Themiscirya is full of queer people, right? I mean, I got that impression, but press releases were always kind of vague.” She knows. She and Harper checked. It still hurts to think of Harper, a deep aching in her chest.</p><p>“Quite definitely,” Diana says, sounding amused. “Sappho's our official poet. And we were planning on installing a cat cafe next month.”</p><p>Steph snorts. “Sweet mother, I cannot weave-” she quotes. “Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl.” She remembers when that was <em>everywhere</em> on Tumblr. She remembers Tumblr. So much lost, like tears in rain.</p><p>Diana flips over, props her chin on her hand. “Are we doing girl talk now?” she asks, her eyes flashing. “Tell me about your crush, sweet Stephanie, I want to know. Bruce isn't here to kick her ass if she hurts you, but I will.”</p><p>Steph thinks about that for a second and laughs, fully, deep from her belly. “Christ, that conversation would have been so terrible,” she finally manages, wheezing. “Hi Bruce, I'm interested in your ex. No, I don't want any sex tips. Good talk, bye.”</p><p>She feels like a terrible person. But she can't be, if Diana's laughing super hard too. So maybe it's – maybe it's okay to be like this. To be someone who's maybe not a good person, who's killed and lost sleep over it and has no regrets but can never forget -</p><p>(the blood, the cracking of Harper's skull, having to use one of their own tasers on them – she won't forget any time soon and those aren't tears in her eyes, not now, she can't afford to waste time on tears when everyone is grieving, but she can't help but hurt even so. Cullen coming right after. The corpses, laid out on the bed because she didn't have time for more.)</p><p>(Grief and anger both live in her bones and she will never forget that she had to kill to get through this. Multiple times. That Alfred had to kill his son. That Bruce had to kill his sons. That the world is horribly, horribly broken, and that it's impossible to make sense of any of it)<br/>
<br/>
Steph's laughter turns into tears, and somehow Diana is holding her, hugging her, patting her on the back.</p><p>“I miss Batman,” she chokes out. “I wouldn't even be in the picture if he was still here. But he's not and he's gone and most of the world is gone and – how can I deserve to be happy, after all of this?” How can anyone be happy, anyone at all?</p><p>Diana is petting her hair. It's comforting, in an inexplicably normal kind of way. Maybe Steph's mom would've done this, if she stuck around.</p><p>“Happiness isn't something you earn,” Diana says, finally. “It's not something you have to refuse yourself. It's part of being human, Stephanie.” She sounds tired. “You don't have to choose your own misery over what you want. Over the people you want.” </p><p>“Even if this isn't something that lasts?” She feels plaintive, but she's not stupid. Talia al Ghul has better things to spend her time on than some girl. She'll find them again, wherever they land.</p><p>“Temporary happiness is still happiness,” Diana assures her. They sit there a while, until they realize they're both hungry, and then head to the kitchens. Along with the supplies from Sweden, they've got a fresh shipment from Themiscirya, even with the population boom over there. There's even fresh baklava.</p><p>Steph tries some and then saves the rest, to leave at Talia's door.</p>
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